New electoral law in tandem with wider reforms say NCD

Junior partner successful in key demand

(ANSA) - Rome, February 22 - Premier Matteo Renzi's new
government will not immediately move to reform an electoral law
ruled unconstitutional last year but instead tie the reform to a
wider Constitutional overhaul, requiring more time and including
the abolition of the Senate, junior partner the New Centre Right
(NCD) said Saturday, revealing one of its terms for backing
Renzi.

Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi, a heavyweight in the party
led by Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, said the NCD had
signed a deal envisaging that "the (reform of) the electoral law
will go in tandem with institutional reforms and will work when
the Senate is abolished".

He pointed out that the reform - fruit of a deal between
Democratic Party leader Renzi and centre-right leader Silvio
Berlusconi - was "conceived for a single chamber, otherwise the
reform doesn't work".

Renzi said this week that his government would seek to
achieve one major reform every month until May, starting this
month with a new election law to replace the dysfunctional old
system that was declared unconstitutional in December.

An election-reform bill Renzi negotiated with Berlusconi
last month - when he was accused by some of bringing the
scandal-hit three-time premier back onto centre stage -is
currently being examined in parliament.

The package sets entry bars for small parties to force them
into alliances and limit their power of veto and a 15% winner's
bonus for a coalition that gets 37% or more to ensure it has an
unassailable majority.

As well as linking electoral reform to scrapping the Senate
and other moves, the NCD is pushing to raise the bars of 4.5% in
a Berlusconi-led coalition or a currently unattainable 8% on its
own.
In addition to the election-law deal, Renzi also agreed
with Berlusconi to change the Constitution to strip the Senate
of its lawmaking powers to make it easier to pass legislation,
turning the Upper House into a leaner assembly of
local-government representatives, and to abolish the country's
provincial governments and bring some powers back to central
government from the regions.

Renzi had said the election reform would be followed by
labour reforms in March, public-administration reforms in April
and fiscal reforms in May.

The other demands the NCD set for joining a Renzi-led
administration were an economy minister who would not raise
taxes and a justice minister to act as 'guarantor' for suspects'
and defendants' rights.

Berlusconi, who is leading his reanimated Forza Italia (FI)
party despite a ban from office on a tax-fraud conviction, said
Saturday that a reform of Italy's slow-moving justice system was
"absolutely urgent" to compete with other countries.

The 77-year-old three-time premier, who is appealing a
conviction for paying an underage prostitute for sex and on
trial for allegedly bribing a Senator to change sides, is
expected to lead the centre right into the next election.

If Renzi achieves his goal of lasting until the end of the
parliamentary term in 2018, Berlusconi would be 81.

Despite recent sparring, the NCD is expected to team up with
FI, from which it split over Berlusconi's ouster from the Senate
and bid to pull the plug on the previous government of Renzi's
party colleague Enrico Letta.